24 June, 2016

Lemon Custard McFlurry with Brownie Bites - Singapore - June 2016

Lemon Custard McFlurry with Brownie Bites

Consumed on - 13 June 2016

Location - McDonald's Scape, 2 Orchard Link, Singapore

Price - 2.90SGD = $2.16USD

Calories - ~390kcal

A couple weeks ago when I was able to review the red-bunned Super Red Burger from McDonald's Singapore I also picked up one of the Lemon Custard McFlurry with Brownie Bites. I know this name far from rolls off the tongue, but that fits, given the history of some pretty awful McFlurry names coming out of Singapore. Since the last McFlurry I had from Singapore, the Pineapple Cookie Crumble was much better than expected, I went in hoping for another gem, but unfortunately this just another poor attempt at something new.

The full lineup of promo of June 2016 promo items from McDonald's Singapore

The official McDonald's website listed the McFlurry as a "Rich vanilla soft serve drizzled with lemon custard and topped with delicious brownie bites." The premise sounded pretty promising, as I enjoy both lemon custard, and brownies, and the combination was intriguing at least as although I've had brownies before, I've never had a Lemon McFlurry. In typical McDonald's Singapore fashion, directly below that tasty description, the following disclaimer was listed - "Lemon Custard McFlurry with Brownie Bites does not contain actual lemon custard, only its flavour."...a great start.

Like the Super Red Burger, even this had Angry Birds promo packaging

The lemon custard flavour tasted actually like a lemon cream pie and was much better than expected on my first bite. I went in expecting an overly sweet lemon flavoured syrup, but the required zest was there to give it like the lemon cream part of a lemon meringue pie flavour more than anything else. But I have a feeling they either couldn't exactly match flavour for the creaminess needed to really make it taste like lemon custard, or they were expecting the milk in the ice cream to fill that gap. That said, this is one of those flavours that impressed me, but it really didn't end up being that good if you had to eat a whole cup of it. On each subsequent bite I found myself enjoying the McFlurry less and less, and the "brownies" certainty didn't help nor did the unidentified black specks of something scattered throughout my cup.

If you are a fan of rich, dark chocolate filled brownies like I am, you'll be extremely disappointed to learn that these were only brownies in name, as no one on the planet could consider whatever these are as brownies. The dark pieces of whatever they were on top of the McFlurry were closer to stale chocolate cookies to anything else. They were rock hard, crunchy and flavourless. The taste didn't mesh well with the lemon flavoured syrup, and the firmness didn't go well with the ice cream either. Also once I made it past the top serving of "brownies" the bottom 2/3 of the cup were only filled with little dust-like pieces of black specks which I hope were just crumbs from the cookies, but once I made it that far, I didn't even want to see what they tasted like, so gave up and threw the rest away.